Akai MINIAK Reference Manual Download Page 58

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Summary of Contents for MINIAK

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Page 3: ...EQUENCES 8 PLAYING SEQUENCES 8 SEQUENCE TYPES ARPEGGIOS SEQUENCES 8 EDITING SEQUENCES 9 CHAPTER 4 RHYTHMS 14 PLAYING RHYTHMS 14 EDITING RHYTHMS 14 CHAPTER 5 MULTIS 19 PLAYING MULTIS 19 MULTI COMPONENTS 19 EDITING MULTIS 19 CHAPTER 6 PROGRAMS 26 WHAT IS A PROGRAM 26 HOW THE MINIAK MAKES SOUND 26 MODULATION 27 PLAYING PROGRAMS 28 EDITING PROGRAMS 28 CHAPTER 7 CONFIGURATION 47 CONFIG 47 CONFIGURATION...

Page 4: ...ly sense and calibrate itself to the pedal You can plug an optional continuous controller expression pedal into the EXPRESSION input For more effective service and product update notices please register your MINIAK online at http www akaipro com Power Stereo Amp Headphones Expression Pedal Footswitch External Instrument External MIDI Device External Sound Module WARNING When connecting audio cable...

Page 5: ...wers the volume If you don t hear anything as you play the MINIAK check the VOLUME knob s setting REAL TIME CONTROLLERS The MOD1 and MOD2 wheels PITCH wheel and X Y Z knobs located on the left half of the MINIAK provide real time control of the MINIAK s sounds PERFORMANCE BUTTONS The OCTAVE TAP TEMPO PHRASE ARP LATCH ARP and PATTERN PLAY buttons switch octaves set the tempo and execute other perfo...

Page 6: ...and the DATA DIAL can be used for selecting When the DATA DIAL is pushed the buttons glow red indicating that you are in Edit Mode and that the DATA DIAL can be used for editing At any one time only one of the buttons will glow indicating that the MINIAK is operating within that mode TURN Turn the DATA DIAL to cycle through various options PUSH Push the DATA DIAL to edit the option displayed Push ...

Page 7: ...nce again to add the Program to the Faves category There is no limit to the number of faves you can have Press the PROGRAMS button again if you want to cancel this action and exit the editing screens Removing Programs from Faves To remove a Program from the Favorites list call up the Program and press the DATA DIAL You will be asked Remove fave Press the DATA DIAL to perform the action SWITCH OCTA...

Page 8: ...uantization and name can be edited EXPLORE THE MULTIS Press MULTI to explore this mode Multi combines the following elements Multiple Programs Multiple Sequences Multiple Rhythms Splits like placing a rhythm on the left side of the keyboard a bass program in the middle and a lead program on the right Latch on off settings Semitone transpositions Level and left right panning Effects settings Contro...

Page 9: ... phrases The lower half of the keyboard plays the bass and upper keys play the lead Then play back your phrases by hitting any note on the keyboard CONNECT EXTERNAL INSTRUMENTS You can connect external audio sources other synthesizers mixers guitars etc using the 1 4 inch AUDIO IN jacks on the back of the MINIAK The jacks accept either balanced or unbalanced cables Your external audio can be blend...

Page 10: ...on the keyboard If you hold down a chord the MINIAK will generate a melody by playing each note of your chord individually A sequence on the other hand already has a melody line built in So all you have to do is hold down a single key and the MINIAK will play back that melody relative to that key Pressing another key will transpose the sequence A Sequence can easily be switched from an arpeggio to...

Page 11: ... note below the one you select will use this new Sequence Every note including and higher than the note you select will use the Multi s existing part The new part is assigned the next letter after the split part For example if the Multi contains parts A B C and D and part B is the part that gets split then part C will be the newly added part All later parts letters are incremented by one To select...

Page 12: ... result from using 8 16 and 32 steps per bar Swing and shuffle feels tend to result from choosing 12 or 24 steps per bar But you can also create some different Sequences by using fractions of bars along with less obvious grid values like 14 and 20 7 Type Choose sequence or arpeggio See Sequence Types Arpeggios Sequences above for more information 8 Span arpeggios only Choose a span ranging from si...

Page 13: ... so you can replay it hold down the DATA DIAL as it gets played back To stop recording turn the DATA DIAL or press a mode button You will often want to clear the entire Sequence and start over One way of doing this is to hold down the DATA DIAL and wipe out the Sequence as you record But a quicker way is to hold down the SEQUENCES button and hit the highest note on the keyboard This is a shortcut ...

Page 14: ...ounds like at that velocity Note Though the duration of the note is displayed in this screen it cannot be edited here e Editing duration To edit the duration of a note move the cursor to it and play the note with the duration you desire The duration value cannot be edited directly but a rough indication of the duration can be seen on the upper right side of the display 12 Clear controllers Press t...

Page 15: ... create and delete Sequences at any time just as you would on a computer Store a copy is how you create a new Sequence This option creates a brand new copy of the current Sequence differing only in name Now when you make changes and hit the STORE button you will be storing to this new copy Whenever you want to start a new Sequence from scratch you will have to find an existing Sequence to base it ...

Page 16: ...ton and turning the DATA DIAL Press any key on the left half of the keyboard to play the Rhythm Use the TAP TEMPO button to change the tempo Once you ve found a Rhythm you want to edit press the DATA DIAL to enter edit mode Turn the DATA DIAL to cycle through the parameters Press it to edit a parameter press again to exit parameter editing 1 Revert to stored Unrevert to edited If you have edited a...

Page 17: ...n then add parts and additional beats to the Multi either by directly editing the Multi or via the Send to Multi option in other modes The Multi s name will be the same as this Rhythm s except preceeded with a plus character This ensures that the new Multi will appear near the beginning of the alphabetized Multis list You can change the name later if you want to keep the Multi or simply delete the...

Page 18: ...ums this will jump you to the Clear rhythm option 7 Drum A through Drum H Turn the DATA DIAL clockwise to access the Drum A settings Each drum holds lots of options Change the drum Program Edit the level Edit the pan position Edit the drum s Sequence including the placement and velocity of each note Clear the Sequence information Remove the drum a Program Press the DATA DIAL once to change the dru...

Page 19: ...ll as the position of the PITCH MOD1 and MOD2 wheels Note that you can press multiple keys at once in order to place multiple drums at a step In fact you can enter an entire Rhythm at once simply by playing it on the keys as long as each step has at least one drum note If you play a key that does not correspond to any drum the cursor will advance but the Rhythm will not be changed When entering a ...

Page 20: ...Hold down the DATA DIAL and turn it clockwise To delete a character navigate past it hold down the DATA DIAL and turn it counterclockwise In both cases imagine that you are dragging the name around 11 Send MIDI sysex Choose this option to send the Rhythm to a computer or other MIDI storage device using the MINIAK s MIDI OUT port This allows you to back up your rhythms to your computer or share the...

Page 21: ...tis pull together Programs Sequences and Rhythms to produce lush soundscapes intricate rhythmic and sonic textures and sophisticated keyboard splits MULTI COMPONENTS Multis are constructed of two basic elements Parts Parts hold Programs and Sequences along with level pan and other settings Beats Beats hold Rhythms along with similar settings EDITING MULTIS Multi editing has a lot of parts as shown...

Page 22: ...the last part you will see that you can add a part Turn the DATA DIAL further to cycle through all of the beats Beats are labeled Beat A Beat B Beat C etc just like parts After the last beat you can add a new beat Keep turning the DATA DIAL clockwise to cycle through screens dedicated to the effects These screens will vary depending on the effect you choose Finally you ll see the clear name delete...

Page 23: ...at all On the other hand if you set a part to 100 wet all you ll hear is what comes out of the master effects The correct effects balance to use depends on the particular effect but for most effects such as phasers and choruses 70 dry 30 wet is a good place to start When using the vocoder you typically don t want to hear any dry at all so set the balance to 100 wet f Low Key Carefully assigning pa...

Page 24: ...on of the x y and z knobs to work on this part The knobs functions are determined by the settings assigned for this part s program within the PROGRAMS screens As with controllers you can assign a knob exclusively to the current part by holding down the MULTI buttons and wiggling the knob This will enable the knob for this part and disable the knob in all other parts As always when you turn a knob ...

Page 25: ...to add a part At the add screen push the DATA DIAL to add a new empty part Note that adding parts using the add feature always adds them after the last part To insert a part in between other parts use the split or layer functions from within the part editing screens 4 Beats Once you are past the part screens you reach the beat screens a Rhythm Choose the rhythm to use for this beat All of the info...

Page 26: ...n use the OCTAVE buttons if your desired split point is outside of the current key range The newly created beat will be assigned the next letter after the current part s letter All subsequent beat letters will be incremented by one h Layer Choose layer to duplicate the current beat The newly created beat will be assigned the next letter after the current beat s letter All subsequent beat letters w...

Page 27: ...tion if desired You will be prompted to confirm this action 12 Store a copy Unlike many synths the MINIAK does not have fixed banks of Programs Sequences and so on each with a predetermined number of storage locations Instead you may freely create and delete Multis at any time just as you would on a computer Store a copy is how you create a new Multi This option creates a brand new copy of the cur...

Page 28: ... to funnel all of these sources into the inputs of the next sound processing stage the filters For each source you can specify its level which is how loud it should be and its balance which determines how much of it goes to Filter 1 and how much to Filter 2 The Filters The sound produced by the oscillators is very raw and usually not suitable to be used directly in an instrument In order to bring ...

Page 29: ...gram parameter according to a looping pattern For example if you are looking to add some vibrato to your instrument you ll need the pitch to continuously waver up and down An LFO is perfect for this application Simply hooking up an LFO to the oscillator pitch parameter will get you the effect you need Each of the MINIAK s voices contains two LFOs The Envelopes If you hit a note on a piano you ll h...

Page 30: ...ting Multi already has one or more parts so you will be given the option of adding this Program to the Multi in one of the following ways 1 send to part The Multi s part s is replaced by the current Program The Multi part s level effects mix key range and latch status are retained See the sidebar for a description of how the parts letter assignments are affected 2 layer The Multi s existing part i...

Page 31: ... Each key triggers two voices thereby halving the available polyphony down to four four voices note Each key triggers four voices and the MINIAK s polyphony is reduced to two simultaneous voices all voices note Reduces the MINIAK to monophonic operation with all available voices dedicated to a single note UsnDetune Select the pitch range by which unison voices will be detuned Higher values lead to...

Page 32: ...is snapped to zero at the frequency of the master oscillator which can create a harsh rough sound even out of sine waves hard 2 3 to 1 Oscillators 2 and 3 are forced to hard sync to oscillator 1 soft 2 to 1 Every time oscillator 1 begins its cycle oscillator 2 reverses direction The resulting wave has no sharp edges as it does with hard sync but exhibits a mixture of harmonics that can have intere...

Page 33: ...e range of the pitch wheel from 0 semitones off to 12 semitones one full octave 7 Pre filter mix parameters Before the sound sources are sent to the filters they are mixed together Use the pre filter mix parameters to set the levels for each of the oscillators the ring modulation noise and external sources Also set the amounts of each of these sources to be sent to filter 1 f1 and filter 2 f2 Also...

Page 34: ...he MINIAK A 3 band formant filter which emulates the oh and ee vowel sounds vocal formant 3 Unique to the MINIAK A 5 band formant filter based on an idealized model of the vocal tract comb 1 4 Unique to the MINIAK The comb filter creates multiple resonant peaks and notches that are not harmonically related phase warp Unique to the MINIAK This is based on an analog phaser effect Eight allpass filte...

Page 35: ...scillator filter and mixer settings FX Mix Effects Mix Sets the wet dry mix for the effects processed audio from 0 to 100 FX Balance Effects Balance Sets the balance between the Micon s two effects modules and determines how much of each is heard FX1 Type Effects 1 Type Select bypass for no effect or select one of the built in pitch effects chorus theta flanger thru 0 flanger super phaser string p...

Page 36: ...64th note if Tempo Sync is enabled D LFO Depth This adjusts the magnitude of the LFO modulation When set to 0 the LFO has no effect on the notch frequencies Range 0 100 E LFO Shape This selects between the two LFO shapes Range sine wave triangle wave F LFO Tempo Sync This selects whether the LFO rate is synchronized to the MINIAK s tempo When follow tempo is selected the LFO Rate parameter is disp...

Page 37: ... 100 C LFO Rate This is the rate of the Low Frequency Oscillator Range 0 010Hz 4 800Hz or 1 16 4 whole notes to 16 64th note if Tempo Sync is enabled D LFO Depth This adjusts the magnitude of the LFO modulation When set to 0 the LFO has no effect on the notch frequencies Range 0 100 E LFO Shape This selects between the two LFO shapes Range sine wave triangle wave F Stages This selects how many all...

Page 38: ... effect A Analysis Gain Also sometimes referred to as Analysis Sensitivity this adjusts the gain of the input to the analysis filter bank Range 100 100 B Sibilance Boost This adjusts the level of a high pass shelving filter at the input to the analysis filter bank This will increase or decrease the sibilant frequencies consonant sounds to improve intelligibility or change the tonality of the vocod...

Page 39: ...r follow the MINIAK s tempo or can occur according to a fixed number of milliseconds When follow tempo is selected the Delay Time parameter is displayed as a multiple of the Tempo Range fixed time follow tempo Stereo Delay Stereo delay operates similarly to Mono delay only in true stereo The maximum delay time is half that available to Mono delay A Delay Time This is the amount of time that the de...

Page 40: ...l which you can think of as an extremely large room A Diffusion The higher the diffusion the more washy and indistinct the reverberated sound will be Range 0 100 B Decay This percentage represents how quickly the reverb decays over time Lower values equate to faster decay Range 0 100 C Brightness As the reverberation decays over time it is often advantageous to darken the sound by progressively re...

Page 41: ...owards zero a negative sustain level will give you an envelope that zigs high zags low and ends up somewhere in the middle Here are the additional envelope parameters Velocity Keyboard Velocity Tracking This parameter determines the extent to which the note velocity or how hard you hit the key affects the envelope When set to 0 the envelope always comes out full strength regardless of how lightly ...

Page 42: ...otes down on the keyboard keeping notes within the sustain section of the envelope as long as the sustain pedal is held down off The MINIAK ignores the sustain pedal relative to the envelope The envelope goes into the release stage when the note is released 12 Low Frequency Oscillator LFO settings TempoSync Tempo Synchronization fixed rate The LFO rate is independent of the tempo set with the TAP ...

Page 43: ... Sample Hold only after the value of the input is changed and another sample is taken The inputs for the S H generator are the same as the Modulation Matrix s modulation sources discussed later Smoothing This parameter governs the abruptness of the shift from the value of one sample to the value of the next A low smoothing value causes the sample values to change instantly from one value to the ne...

Page 44: ...s When the midpoint is reached the tracking generator locks the source s output at 0 its middle range Then at the eighth positive point the tracking generator gradually ramps up the source s output value It holds steady for a while and then begins a gradual descent at the fourteenth positive point How does all this sound Pretty weird Remember without the tracking generator the source s output woul...

Page 45: ...90 degrees LFO2 Sqr LFO 2 Square wave output LFO2CSqr LFO 2 Square wave output phase shifted 90 degrees LFO2 Tri LFO 2 Triangle wave output LFO2CTri LFO 2 Triangle wave output phase shifted 90 degrees MOD1Wheel Position Value of MOD1 wheel or incoming MIDI CC 00 message MOD2Wheel Position value of MOD2 wheel or incoming MIDI channel pressure message P Wheel Position value of Pitch wheel or incomin...

Page 46: ...tor 2 pitch through entire 10 octave range Osc2Nar Modulates oscillator 2 pitch constrained to 1 octave Osc2Shp Modulates oscillator 2 shape Osc3Pit Modulates oscillator 3 pitch through entire 10 octave range Osc3Nar Modulates oscillator 3 pitch constrained to 1 octave Osc3Shp Modulates oscillator 3 shape Osc1Lvl Osc2Lvl Osc3Lvl RingLvl NoisLvl ExInLvl Osc1Bal Osc2Bal Osc3Bal RingBal NoisBal ExInB...

Page 47: ...gram Parameters Env3Amp Scales the amplitude of the envelope s output thus affecting the amount that the envelope modulates anything else Env3Rat Modulates all of the envelope time stages Attack Decay Sustain and Release simultaneously Env3Atk Env3Dcy Env3STm Env3SLv Env3Rel See equivalent Program Parameters LFO1Rat See equivalent Part parameters LFO1Amp Scales the amplitude of LFO 1 s output thus...

Page 48: ...ate and delete Programs at any time just as you would on a computer Store a copy is how you create a new Program This option creates a brand new copy of the current Program differing only in name Now when you make changes and hit the STORE button you will be storing to this new copy Whenever you want to start a new Program from scratch you will have to find an existing Program to base it off of an...

Page 49: ... DIAL to edit the velocity curve Turn the DATA DIAL to select a new curve Press the DATA DIAL again to accept the curve setting and return to the main config menu 5 Local Control Turn the DATA DIAL clockwise once to edit the keyboard s local control setting Options are on off or off send ptns By default local control is set to on Set to on the MINIAK functions normally the keyboard wheels footswit...

Page 50: ... MIDI channels a Multi with more than sixteen parts and beats will not work well in multi channel mode The parts that would be assigned channels above 16 will not send or receive MIDI data 8 MIDI sync The MIDI sync setting determines how incoming timing signals sent over MIDI are processed The default setting for MIDI sync is off In this mode any incoming MIDI timing data is ignored This allows yo...

Page 51: ...u can use your MINIAK to play another MIDI instrument synthesizer sound module drum machine etc Connect a MIDI cable from the MINIAK s MIDI OUT jack to the MIDI IN of the device you want to control For this setup ensure that the MINIAK s Local Control setting is ON in the CONFIG settings Slave With this setup you can use another keyboard to play the sounds on your MINIAK Connect a MIDI cable from ...

Page 52: ...lus everything it depends on all of the Rhythms Sequences and Programs that your friend will need to hear your creation exactly as it sounds on your MINIAK Compatibility with other programs The MINIAK s Programs are 100 compatible with the Alesis Ion and the Alesis Micron However the MINIAK s Sequences Rhythms and Multis are not compatible with the Ion Sharing Programs between the Akai MINIAK and ...

Page 53: ...Sequence and start over Scroll to Clear Sequence and press the DATA DIAL Alternately you can hold SEQUENCES and press the highest key on the keyboard to jump right there How do I split and layer the keyboard You need to create a Multi MINIAK was designed to make splitting and layering as easy as possible Follow this procedure 1 Press PROGRAMS and find a Program that you like 2 Push the DATA DIAL t...

Page 54: ...ou need the MIDI bank and patch numbers For a Program hold down the PROGRAMS button for a second and these numbers will appear on the display For a Multi use the MULTI button and so on Next enter the bank and patch numbers into your sequencer If this doesn t seem to work you may need to check your sequencer s bank select method MINIAK uses the standard MIDI bank select protocol wherein the bank nu...

Page 55: ...stance SYMPTOMS CAUSE SOLUTION The display does not light up when the ON OFF switch is turned on No power Check that the power adapter is plugged in properly Bad Connections Check your audio cables if necessary swap cables Volume is turned down Raise the Volume knob or Exp pedal Local keyboard is disabled In the config menu Set Local Control to on Change Multis to revert to default values No sound...

Page 56: ...version will display briefly Then the MINIAK will indicate that it is ready to receive an operating system version over MIDI To return to normal operation turn the MINIAK off and on again Restoring the Factory Defaults You can restore the MINIAK to its factory default state at any time Turn the MINIAK off Then hold down the PROGRAMS MULTI and OCTAVE DOWN buttons and turn the MINIAK back on again C...

Page 57: ...er voice Effects 4 drive effects 1 per part master effects Sequencing Step sequencer arpeggiator drum machine rhythm sequencer and phrase sequencer Program memory Up to 1 000 Programs and multi timbral Multis Velocity sensitive Yes Keyboard 37 key semi weighted External control MIDI in out thru Inputs 2 balanced 1 4 TRS mic Outputs 2 balanced 1 4 TRS 1 4 TRS headphone Controls Pitch wheel two assi...

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